How Could You? Hall of Shame-Little People’s World UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Compton, California, owners CSJ and Hitaji  Kitaji Kidogo of a group home for children with severe mental and behavioral issues called Little People’s World “admitted to misusing hundreds of thousands in public funds and failing to pay taxes years ago but continues working under a county contract.

The office of county Auditor-Controller Wendy Watanabe is expected to release an audit this week on Little People’s World, which contracts with the Department of Children and Family Services to care for kids with severe mental and behavioral problems at two group homes in Compton.

The facilities are operated by the husband-wife team of CSJ and Hitaji  Kitaji Kidogo. County officials have previously found that the homes themselves are well-run and provide a safe environment for children. But they have also found that Little People’s World improperly gave or “loaned” CSJ Kidogo $280,000 in funds to be used for public purposes, which he apparently then used to invest in property outside of Los Angeles County. Little People’s World had also failed to pay $320,000 in payroll taxes, according to a December 2011 audit.

About $185,000 of the $280,000 is owed to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, which has been contracting with Little People’s World for years to care for kids with severe mental and behavioral problems.

At the time, the county decided to keep the Kidogos on contract without prosecution and strike a deal for them to repay the funds.

DCFS Director Philip Browning, however, has requested a new audit amid concerns that executive director CSJ Kidogo might be paying his debts by giving himself a $6,000-a-month raise, and by leasing out the real estate he had bought with money from child welfare agencies.

“I know that’s being looked at by the auditor-controller,” he said.

CSJ, 72, and Hitaji Kitaji, 62, admitted making mistakes in the past but stressed they were merely trying to expand their services, and were never out to enrich themselves.

“We have learned to stay in compliance,” CSJ Kidogo said in a recent telephone interview.

Watanabe said in the earlier audit that Kidogo initially claimed the nonsalary payments were a “loan” intended for upgrades and expansion.

When auditors couldn’t find proof the transactions had been approved by the group home’s Board of Directors, Watanabe said Kidogo acknowledged using the money to buy “nongroup home related” real estate in Riverside County, Oakland and Oklahoma.

Auditors estimated that the portion of the funds that didn’t come from L.A. County instead came from Riverside County, where Little People’s World operates a group home in Banning and another in Cherry Valley.

In 2009, Kidogo signed a deal with the county treasurer and tax collector, promising to take $3,000 out of his salary each month to reimburse the DCFS.

To date, he has paid back $93,149.67, according to the Assistant Treasurer and Tax Collector Kathy Gloster.

Kidogo also committed in 2009 to taking an additional $4,000 out of his salary each month for back payroll taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service.

Interviewed last week, Kidogo denied giving himself a $6,000-a-month raise to cover any of those payments.

“I haven’t had a raise since maybe 2003,” he said, adding he has dipped into his retirement fund.

Interviewed on Tuesday, however, his wife, said they each received raises in 2008. She would not say how much, only that “it was within the guidelines. ”

Hitaji, whose title is assistant executive director, also said they were “not being malicious or trying to take advantage” when they bought real estate with money from the DCFS and other child welfare agencies and put it in their names.

“We just didn’t know we couldn’t do that,” she said. “It was certainly not to enrich ourselves.”

“We have tax difficulties but we kept people working when we should have laid people off, and we didn’t take raises ourselves,” she added.

Hitaji Kidogo said they initially wanted to buy the properties in the name of Little People’s World, but ended up putting it in the name of CSJ Kidogo instead because they were the guarantors of the loan.

When asked why the couple hung onto the three properties after the county demanded payback, she explained they were bought during the housing bubble and eventually went underwater.

“We couldn’t sell without taking a loss,” she said.

The property bought in Banning, Riverside County, is now a state-of-the art office and training facility for staff, and is also used for visitations.

Hitaji Kitaji Kidogo said Little People’s World tried but failed to secure a license to turn the Oklahoma property into a group home, so it is now sitting idle. She said the plan is to liquidate it.

As for the Oakland property, Hitaji Kitaji Kidogo said she and her husband bought it with money from child welfare agencies because they had met with representatives of a nonprofit foundation who expressed interest in working with them. The foundation later backed out and they had difficulty making money leasing out the property.

She said she and her husband made the initial payments on the house using child welfare money but they have been dipping into their own pockets for the mortgage for over a year.

Both Kidogos said the children in their care have never been, and never will be, adversely impacted by the diversion of DCFS and other child welfare funds to buy real estate.

“We network. We use resources. We find out how to use grants, get access to things that are being given,” Hitaji Kidogo said.

Browning acknowledged the DCFS could have dumped Little People’s World and sued Kidogo when the real estate purchases were first discovered. Instead, it placed them on a month-to-month contract – $8,309 a month for each of the 15 kids ages 6 to 15 who are currently in their care – and negotiated a repayment plan.

“One of the things we want to do is get our money back,” Browning explained. “If we put them out of business, we would lose a lot of money. ”

Also, Browning noted services provided by Little People’s World have been consistently positive over the years.

In a performance audit dated Oct. 31, 2012, auditors said, “The interviewed children generally reported feeling safe at Little People’s World; having been provided with good care and appropriate services; being comfortable in their environment and treated with respect and dignity. ”

Browning said another reason why DCFS continued working with Little People’s World is because the number of group homes operating in Los Angeles County is dwindling.

“We have to think about where we would put these kids if the program collapses,” he said. “We’re really stretched in terms of finding appropriate placement for these children, who need a high level of care. ”

Depending on the facts, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said Little People’s World could potentially have been charged with embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds and fraud. She said DCFS’s decision might have turned on whether it suspected Kidogo of malicious intent.

“There’s a lot of discretion that goes into prosecution and, frankly, this would not be the only case where prosecutors decided it would better to have them pay the money back rather than put them in jail,” she said.

Several members of the Board of Supervisors, however, appear ready to crack down on group homes, several of which have not passed muster in financial audits. Aside from Little People’s World, the auditor-controller has looked at three other group homes this year and found two of them had tens of thousands in “unallowable expenses,” “unsupported wages” and other problems.

“It’s very disturbing when there are allegations – or, for that matter, audit findings – that raise questions about contract compliance and quality service for these children,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, in whose district Little People’s World operates. “That issue will not be overlooked; indeed, it will be confronted.””Whatever people may have gotten away with in the past, those days are over,” Ridley-Thomas added.

“Accountability and compliance are the orders of the day.””When it comes to the management of these funds, fiscal incompetence and malfeasance is absolutely unacceptable,” said Supervisor Don Knabe. “Public funds should not be used as an ATM machine by those we entrust to care for our most vulnerable!”

“We are looking at implementing the most effective ways to ensure fiscal responsibility and the highest quality of care for the thousands of children we are responsible for, and my expectation is that any agency which abuses our trust will either clean up their act or we will cancel their contracts,” Knabe added.”

L.A. County auditors investigating group home for special needs kids

[Daily News Los Angeles 5/28/13 by Christina Villacorte]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update: “A husband and wife have been charged with embezzling more than $460,000 from a taxpayer-funded nonprofit agency hired by Los Angeles County to help abused and neglected foster children, the district attorney’s office announced Thursday.

The couple, arrested at their Banning home Thursday, face 22 counts of misappropriation of public funds and embezzlement.

A county audit in 2011 concluded that CSJ Kidogo, the executive director of the nonprofit Little People’s World, and his wife, Hitaji Kitaji Kidogo, assistant executive director, used agency money to purchase personal real estate in Northern California and Oklahoma. The couple also allegedly borrowed agency money without repaying it, funded personal vacations and collected salaries totaling $269,000, according to the audit, which formed the basis for the criminal case.

“Money intended to care for children in foster homes instead lined the pockets of the executives who ran the programs,” said Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey. The couple did not respond to messages left at their home and business.

In recent weeks, the county’s Department of Children and Family Services has declined to answer The Times’ questions about Little People’s World, which is paid higher rates than many foster home contractors because it accepts children with more severe behavioral and mental health challenges. The nonprofit operates two group homes in Compton and two in Riverside County that normally care for a total of 28 children. In all, the agency receives about $2.5 million annually from the two county governments.

The district attorney’s office said the 2011 audit wasn’t referred to prosecutors for possible criminal investigation until last year. The county auditor-controller’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the delay.

Prosecutors said the misuse of funds began in 2008 and continued into 2013. However, the county’s child welfare department continued to contract with Little People’s World despite the earlier critical audit and a pledge last year by the department’s director, Philip Browning, to take financial improprieties at contracted foster agencies more seriously. His department also received additional funding from the Board of Supervisors to increase oversight staffing.

Following Thursday’s arrests, Browning said he continued to use Little People’s World because he believed the children were receiving an appropriate level of care. “The bottom line is that we didn’t think safety was an issue,” Browning said.

A DCFS operational audit completed earlier this year found Little People’s World met standards in most categories. But the audit noted concerns, including buildings in disrepair and insufficient planning to ensure children’s needs were being met. And it noted that some problems, including at least one child injury, weren’t properly reported.

DCFS has been criticized in recent years for poor fiscal oversight of its foster care contractors. Only about one-tenth of the more than $11 million in inappropriate expenditures identified by auditors at foster care nonprofits between 2000 to 2010 has been recovered, The Times reported earlier this year.

County auditors found that one agency, Teens Happy Homes in Los Angeles, spent funds on cigarettes and beer — 30 cases of the latter in one instance. Another foster care contractor, America Care, spent taxpayer dollars on alcohol, clothing from Nordstrom, tobacco, jewelry boxes, fine china, perfume and a martini set, according to county auditors.

In recent weeks, social workers began to remove children from Little People’s World homes, but at least seven children remain in the agency’s care. The district attorney said the agency would be closing soon.

Both defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on Monday. Prosecutors said they would ask that their bail be set at $550,000 each.

If convicted, each defendant faces up to 14 years in state prison.”

Foster care agency directors charged with embezzlement[LA Times 9/18/14 by Garret Therolf]

Update 2:”Los Angeles County officials paid a foster care nonprofit millions of dollars in taxpayer money even though government investigators repeatedly warned of problems with the organization, including allegations of financial misconduct and child abuse.

County officials eventually severed ties with Little People’s World late last year after the Los Angeles County district attorney filed criminal charges against the nonprofit’s executive director, CSJ Kidogo, and his wife, Kitaji Kidogo, accusing them of embezzling and misappropriating $460,000 of government funds.

The Kidogos have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. One of their attorneys, Austin Dove, said prosecutors were trying to hold the couple accountable for financial bookkeeping rules that were never properly communicated by county officials.

The criminal allegations against the Kidogos raise questions about the effectiveness of reforms implemented in recent years by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services to better monitor the foster care providers it hires. Two years ago, the agency hired additional staff to guard against financial misconduct following a series of stories by The Times that revealed that money intended for the care of children was often misspent by contract providers.

In some cases, money was spent on personal vacations, luxury cars, fine china and salaries for employees who didn’t exist, The Times found. More than $11 million of county funds allegedly had been misappropriated by nonprofits between 2000 and 2010, county audits show.

L.A. County paid millions to troubled foster care agency despite warnings [LA Times 4/5/15 by Garret Therolf]

Update 3:”A couple who contracted with Los Angeles County to operate a series of foster homes pleaded guilty Monday to embezzling thousands of dollars in funds intended for abused and neglected children.

CSJ Kidogo, 74, the former executive director of Little People’s World, Inc. (LPW), pleaded guilty to one felony count of misappropriation of public money, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

His wife, Hitaji Kidogo, 64, the former assistant executive director of LPW, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of embezzlement, according to the release.

Little People’s World operated four group homes that provided foster care to 28 children in the county.

An audit by the county revealed that CSJ Kidogo used money earmarked for foster care to purchase real estate for himself and pay mortgages on properties not used by LPW, the DA’s office stated.

The couple was ordered to return to court on Jan. 15, 2016, for sentencing, at which time CSJ Kidogo was expected to be ordered to serve 180 days in county jail and be placed on five years formal probation, according to Deputy DA Susan Choi.

His wife was expected to be placed on supervised summary probation for five years, Choi said.

The couple, who have already paid large amounts of restitution, were ordered to pay an additional $109,093 to the county at the time of sentencing, the release stated.

Both defendants were also be prohibited from operating foster care homes.”

Foster Care Couple Plead Guilty to Embezzling Funds Intended for Abused, Neglected Kids [KTLA 9/14/15 by Kennedy Ryan]